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Adventures in the Archives: Digitizing

In addition to the different collections I have been highlighting in previous posts, Trinity’s archives also contain a wide variety of materials related to our school’s history. For instance, most of the Trinity Digests, printed since the 1950s, are housed in the archives. We also have yearbooks going back to the 1930s, course catalogs, LP recordings of Trinity’s choir, and many other materials.

It is my goal to eventually digitize our yearbooks, photos, and newspapers, so that people can access our history more easily. However, in the meantime, I have decided to begin digitizing some of our VHS tapes before they deteriorate and stop working.

Right before Thanksgiving, IT set up the equipment for us to digitize the tapes. The first tape that I used to test the equipment had “Trinity’s First Football Game” written on it. Not long after the tape began playing did we realize that Mike Ditka was at the game! For those of you who may not know, Mike Ditka was an NFL player for several teams, including the Chicago Bears in the 1960s. He also became an NFL coach for several teams, including the Bears. In fact, he helped the Bears win their first Super Bowl in the 1985 season.

One of the NFL players who played for the Bears while Ditka was the coach was Leslie Frazier. Frazier was Trinity’s first football coach, and basically the one who started our football team. That is why our football field is named after him. That is also why Ditka was at Trinity’s first football game, according to the tape. He came to support Frazier since it was his first coaching position. Trinty’s first football game was on September 9, 1989.

Frazier left Trinity in 1997, and went on to coach have many other teams, including NFL teams. From 2011-2013, he was actually the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings. He is currently the defensive coordinator for the Buffalo Bills.

I am not sure if the rest of the VHS tapes in Trinity’s archives will be as exciting as Trinity’s first football game, but it did confirm the fact that digitizing them is an important task.